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#video #Mysteries of the Abandoned - Season 13 - Episode 11: Fort Traitor
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00:02In New Jersey, a secretive facility infiltrated by a Soviet spy ring.
00:08It's believed the damage they did to national security was incalculable.
00:14A palatial compound in Peru that held lavish parties for the country's elite.
00:20But something terrible was happening right underneath their feet.
00:26And an island stronghold besieged by the Nazis.
00:31This battle is such a disaster for the Allies that it gets called Churchill's Folly.
00:48In the lowlands of New Jersey are the remains of a sprawling complex.
00:54Linked to a devastating infiltration.
01:01We're just a few miles from the Jersey Shore in a typical residential area with wide tree-lined streets.
01:09But this one area is set apart.
01:12Lots of wide open spaces.
01:14Buildings that look like they were constructed as part of a unified project.
01:21There appear to be theatres or lecture halls.
01:24So was this maybe a school or university?
01:28But other areas start to paint quite a confusing picture.
01:32One building has a room.
01:34It's all filled with inward-facing cones.
01:38It feels otherworldly, like something out of a sci-fi movie.
01:43You get the feeling that there was something very advanced and highly classified happening here.
01:49For decades, this facility was at the cutting edge of military research.
01:54But that would make it a target.
01:58You could argue that this was the worst case of internal espionage in American history.
02:12Melissa Ziobro became the official historian for this innovative complex in 2004.
02:19For close to 100 years, this site was essential to making sure that the U.S. Army was the best
02:25prepared and best equipped in the world.
02:28It was built to solve a fundamental problem that any military faces.
02:33How do you ensure accurate communication in the midst of battle?
02:38In May 1917, just one month after America joined World War I, a temporary camp was established here.
02:48It was dedicated to training the Army's Signal Corps.
02:53This was a group completely devoted to the correct transmission of information under the harshest conditions.
03:02They used telegraphs, telephones, even carrier pigeons.
03:07In recognition of the crucial role they played in defeating Germany in 1918, the camp was soon transformed into a
03:16permanent installation.
03:18In the gap between World War I and World War II, the world was changing rapidly.
03:24The aircraft carrier mechanized transport meant the wars of the future were going to take place over even larger expanses
03:33of terrain or ocean.
03:35That would strain the existing communications technology.
03:40We are in one of the barracks buildings on Barker Circle, the first permanent construction done here on base.
03:49They were very involved in early wireless technologies, early radio.
03:54They were testing air-to-ground radio.
03:57The high-tech innovations made here led to this place developing a nickname, the Army's House of Magic.
04:05But its official name was Fort Monmouth.
04:10During the 1930s, they made a pivotal breakthrough with a technology that would change warfare, radar.
04:20The radar systems developed here would be deployed on many fronts.
04:25One of the first was Hawaii, the home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
04:30There are actually radars from Fort Monmouth at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
04:36They detect the incoming Japanese planes.
04:40Panicking at what they saw, they reported the incoming planes to their superiors.
04:45But the radar operators told, don't worry about it, it's probably birds or maybe it's our own planes,
04:50because the technology was just so new.
04:53People didn't understand it, they didn't trust it.
04:56And, of course, then the Japanese attack happens.
05:01Now, back here at Fort Monmouth, the radar folks are at first horrified.
05:06They think that their technology has failed.
05:09Then they find out, no, it worked, but the warning wasn't heeded.
05:13This will go down in history as one of the great communications disasters in modern warfare.
05:21Thrust into global war, Fort Monmouth's mission was now more critical than ever.
05:27And thousands of civilian engineers were brought into the Signal Corps to create vital new communication technologies.
05:38This would have been a highly classified facility.
05:41The anechoic chamber absorbed sound and electromagnetic rays and allowed personnel to test things like antennas and radars.
05:52As well as further advances in radar, they also developed groundbreaking backpack radios.
05:58These made a vital difference on the battlefield.
06:03The technologies coming out of Fort Monmouth were the envy of the world.
06:10And so there was a constant recognition that we might be infiltrated.
06:16Yet Fort Monmouth had already been compromised, with a mole embedded within its ranks.
06:23Julius Rosenberg joined the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories in 1940.
06:29He worked as an engineer and inspector for them until 1945.
06:34But early in the war, he had been recruited as a Soviet spy.
06:38The history here is tricky.
06:39The Soviets were nominally America's allies in fighting the Germans.
06:45But everyone knew the Soviets would, again, be America's enemies at some point after the end of the war.
06:53Julius Rosenberg was perfectly positioned to gather as much information as possible.
07:00And he wasn't operating alone.
07:04Rosenberg and his handlers recruited two more people who worked at Fort Monmouth.
07:10Joe Barr and Alfred Sarrant.
07:13Rosenberg's spy ring copied more than 9,000 pages of top secret documents.
07:20Information about 100 different weapon systems.
07:24In one case, Rosenberg obtained the actual unit of a proximity fuse.
07:30An incredibly vital piece of technology.
07:32He literally put it in a box and wrapped it up as a Christmas present for his Soviet handler.
07:38As World War II was morphing into the Cold War, Rosenberg continued to smuggle top secret material back to his
07:47Soviet overlords.
07:48Now, America's primary foe.
07:52In this dawning nuclear age, the stakes were higher than ever.
07:58He recruited his brother-in-law who worked at the post-war period's most important, most top-secret project, Los
08:08Alamos,
08:08where they were doing the work to develop the atomic weapon.
08:13The information that Rosenberg passed on to the Soviets allowed them to greatly accelerate their own program to develop an
08:22atomic bomb.
08:32On August 29th, 1949, the Soviet Union tested their first nuclear weapon.
08:40It was almost a carbon copy of the Fat Man bomb developed at Los Alamos.
08:46U.S. intelligence investigated a potential leak, which eventually led them back to Rosenberg and his co-conspirators,
08:55who began their portrayal at Fort Monmouth.
08:59Helped by a tip-off from the Russian handlers, Barr and Surratt fled to the Soviet Union.
09:05Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were not so lucky.
09:08Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, implicated the pair after his own arrest in June 1950 for leaking confidential information from Los
09:19Alamos.
09:21The Rosenbergs were put on trial in one of the most publicized and closely watched events in American history.
09:32They were both sentenced to death and executed at Sing Sing Prison.
09:38Two months later, in 1953, the Rosenbergs' connection to Fort Monmouth was pounced on by a fanatical anti-communist crusader,
09:49Joseph McCarthy.
09:51The complete, wholehearted support now of the commanding generals in Fort Monmouth who want to clean communists and potential espionage
09:59agents out of their organization.
10:03In 1950, a security breach was discovered at Los Alamos, where Oppenheimer and his team had developed the atomic bomb.
10:14It led investigators to Soviet spy Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel, who were both executed in 1953.
10:23A flamboyant senator, Joseph McCarthy, was taking advantage of the concerns about communist infiltration to boost his own profile and
10:35career.
10:37So once McCarthy knows that Rosenberg had worked for the Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth is the home of the Signal
10:45Corps.
10:45He becomes convinced that surely there must still be a communist spiring operating.
10:52He actually visited the base as part of his investigation in the fall of 1953.
10:57He made a big show of how he was here and he was, you know, personally trying to root out
11:01these communists.
11:03Based on McCarthy's allegations, the officials at Fort Monmouth suspended 42 employees.
11:09Of the 42 accused, all but two were reinstated by 1958.
11:17But 15 years later, after a military reorganization, the Signal Corps was relocated in 1973.
11:28What remains behind here at Fort Monmouth is something known as the Electronics Command.
11:33And then we start getting into things like night vision technologies and GPS and early cell phones and on and
11:39on and on up through the global war on terror.
11:42The base was officially closed on September 15th, 2011.
11:47And with that, nearly a century of U.S. Army occupation came to an end.
11:55But Fort Monmouth would have one more brush with fame.
12:01Bruce Springsteen, who is a Monmouth County native, practiced here in the Expo Theater that we're standing in.
12:09I have met Bruce.
12:10He is lovely.
12:12You know, he's just another Jersey Shore guy who happens to be an international rock star.
12:22Today, like many retired U.S. military bases, there are plans for Fort Monmouth to be converted to various kinds
12:30of civilian uses, including business and housing.
12:33And there are plans underway to turn parts of the campus into a movie studio.
12:42In North Wales, near the Irish Sea, is a scarred landscape that helped inspire Tolkien's Mordor and Middle Earth.
12:55We're in the ancient, rugged mountains of Wales.
12:59It's one of the wettest parts of Britain, cloudy and misty.
13:03But the landscape has a special majesty.
13:07But the landscape around here isn't pristine.
13:09It's deeply scarred.
13:11And there are huge piles of rubble and debris everywhere.
13:16You see old structures, some of them in ruins, with all kinds of equipment laying around.
13:23Clearly, there's something in the hills here that was worth an enormous amount of human effort.
13:29This material was carved out of the land, transforming the region and creating a vast unseen labyrinth.
13:39When you descend into the mountainside, you enter a completely different world.
13:45It seems like there are miles and miles of tunnels.
13:48And then, interspersed along them, these enormous cavernous rooms.
13:54But the material they were mining was prized across the world, from New York to San Francisco, even as far
14:01as Australia.
14:02At one time, half the buildings in New York were covered with this material.
14:11Phil Lee Jones has a deep connection to this site.
14:16He gives tours around the complex, where his forefathers once toiled.
14:23I can go back about five generations of my family working in these places, probably more.
14:31You can imagine all the machinery, all the wheels turning.
14:35If it would be a very noisy place, it would be a very busy place.
14:38As far back as Roman times, humans have tried to extract a precious resource from this land.
14:47But into the mid-1800s, that extraction began to change it beyond all recognition.
14:54From rolling green hills into the blackened landscape of today.
15:01This whole enormous complex began with one man's determination to find his fortune in these barren hills.
15:11Entrepreneur John Greaves arrived here in the 1840s.
15:16Greaves was convinced there was a seam of what was known as blue-gray gold somewhere here.
15:22He just had to find it.
15:25That blue-gray gold was a precious rock called slate.
15:31He dug for three years and found nothing.
15:35The story goes that he sank his entire fortune into the search and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
15:41Then, in 1849, his prayers were answered.
15:46They found what's known as the Merioneth Old Vane.
15:49And they began to follow it deep underground.
15:52Eventually, they would dig out 250 chambers across 16 levels, stretching 1,200 feet from top to bottom.
16:00And it's all connected by 25 miles of tunnels.
16:05This is Lechwyd Mine, in an area called Blana Festiniog, which became known as the slate capital of the world.
16:18The slate from Wales has a reputation of being some of the best in the world.
16:21It's very smooth, has a beautiful color, it weathers well.
16:27And despite being easy to split on one axis, it remains extremely durable.
16:33That makes it a wonderful building material.
16:36Highly resistant to fire and corrosion, it's also waterproof, lending itself perfectly to roofing.
16:44Slate roofs can last 100 years, even a couple of centuries.
16:49Wagons would be coming in with big slabs along the rail tracks here from underground.
16:55They'd come to these sewing tables, and then they were sawn into manageable blocks.
17:02And then they were transported down to these cubicles down over here,
17:07where then they would be turned into finished roofing slates.
17:13Into the 1850s, it was being exported to all corners of the globe,
17:19giving rise to the saying, Wales roofed the world,
17:24a fact not lost on the mine's owner.
17:28Greaves was an astute businessman,
17:29and he invested in a series of railways and shipping wharves
17:33to ensure that he could export his slate around the rest of the country and the world.
17:40As San Francisco was having a huge building boom due to the gold rush,
17:45a lot of the buildings were roofed with slate from this mine.
17:50Greaves' operations were proving to be a huge success.
17:55But even by the standards of underground mining,
17:59slate mines were particularly hazardous.
18:02He was working in this area, and unfortunately, the blast went off early.
18:14Lechwed Mine was part of a slate mining boom in North Wales,
18:18which became famous in the mid-1800s for roofing the world.
18:23It's hard to imagine just how dangerous and difficult this work was.
18:27First of all, no electric lights.
18:30So they're descending deep, deep, deep into the mountainside
18:34with a candle at best.
18:37They can see basically what's in front of their faces.
18:41The miners could be crushed to death by cave-ins,
18:45burnt by gas explosions, or blown up by gunpowder.
18:49This is what happened with my grandfather.
18:52He was working in this area, and unfortunately,
18:56the blast went off early, and he lost the use of his hand.
18:59His hand was mangled. It was like that.
19:01Couldn't straighten his fingers out.
19:03He had a big scar on the inside of his wrist
19:05and blue freckles all over his hand.
19:08It's where the slate had gone in, underneath his skin.
19:10So I can't appreciate the dangers.
19:14But there was another unseen threat,
19:17perhaps the biggest risk of all.
19:20Mining and processing the slate was very dusty,
19:24and the workers had no protection against it.
19:27They spent their lives breathing in harmful silica dust.
19:31The government was so concerned,
19:33they did an inquiry into the death rate in these mines,
19:36and they found that it was even worse than that of coal miners.
19:40The risks would eventually prompt the miners to call for action.
19:45In 1874, a mine workers' union was formed.
19:50This is one of the first places where there was a real effort
19:53to unionize the workforce,
19:55to fight for some of their rights,
19:57to fight for greater safety, better pay.
20:00But as this movement was gathering pace among its workers,
20:04Lechwed's owners were struck by tragedy.
20:07John Greaves died in 1880.
20:09And passed the operation over to his son,
20:12also called John Greaves.
20:14He was soon faced with a wave of strikes
20:18that swept across the region.
20:21And a recession, which dragged on into the 1890s,
20:26compounded by a changing global market.
20:29There was increasing competition from cheaper slate
20:33brought in from abroad,
20:34including mines in Pennsylvania,
20:36which were originally set up by Welsh miners.
20:38The industry's decline continued,
20:43driven by the Great Depression and two world wars.
20:47The last underground mining here finally ended in the 1980s.
20:54That's the downfall of Welsh slate.
20:56It's the best in the world,
20:57but it's the most expensive in the world as well.
21:06The slate landscape of northwest Wales
21:09is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
21:12But Lechwed and other local mines
21:15have also been repurposed to boost employment.
21:20In 1972, the Lechwed slate caverns opened to the public
21:25as a tourist attraction.
21:27As well as historical tours,
21:30a company called Zip World
21:32has turned the complex into an adventure playground,
21:36which includes the fastest zip line in the world.
21:45In Greece is the rugged island of Leros,
21:49a strategic outpost that's been the envy of leaders
21:53and dictators through the ages.
21:59On one of the largest peaks
22:01is a strange three-sided formation made of concrete.
22:06From the ground,
22:07this just looks like some concrete construction.
22:11But when you get above ground
22:13and you look down at this place,
22:15that is one strange three-sided structure down there.
22:22Though unique looking,
22:24it becomes clear that it doesn't stand alone.
22:27It's part of a wider network.
22:32Low concrete buildings, tunnels, bunkers,
22:36towers with high vantage points,
22:38these must be some type of military structures,
22:41but they've fallen into disrepair.
22:44Is this natural decay
22:46or signs of a more violent event?
22:50Up close, the walls,
22:52riddled with bullet holes and pockmarks,
22:55provide the answer.
22:57The people on this island suffered a lot.
23:00They were the victims of other people's war.
23:04We were scared.
23:06They were bombing continuously.
23:09It was psychologically unbearable.
23:17On the Greek island of Leros,
23:21shattered structures are all that remain
23:23of a bitter conflict
23:25that ripped this quiet community apart.
23:31This modern sculpture was the acoustic mirror.
23:36It was a concave structure
23:37that trapped and amplified the sound
23:40of the incoming aircraft.
23:42Local resident Nikos Fokas
23:45has been entranced by these formations for decades.
23:49So, the operator would walk within this trench
23:53when he had a noise.
23:54Let's say, now here,
23:56he knew that it was coming from that direction.
24:01Around it, there was a lot of anti-aircraft guns
24:05and also the command center for all the air defense control.
24:11Leros is part of Greece today,
24:13but these structures date back to an era
24:15when the island was under foreign control.
24:17This aircraft warning system
24:20was part of an extensive network of fortifications
24:24built in the 1920s and 30s
24:26on the orders of Italian fascist dictator
24:30Benito Mussolini.
24:33Their purpose was to protect
24:35the island's greatest strategic asset,
24:38a port that would allow Mussolini
24:40to challenge the British Navy's domination
24:43of the region's seas.
24:47This island is providing
24:50a massive naval base,
24:52a deep-water port
24:53that enables the Italians
24:56to keep sea power active
24:58against rival powers
25:01in the eastern Mediterranean.
25:05It was one of the largest naval bases
25:09they had outside of the mainland Italy.
25:12They had seaplanes.
25:13They had warships.
25:15They had the submarine base.
25:17It gave them total control of the area.
25:21Mussolini's rapidly expanding navy
25:23could now vie for supremacy
25:25in the eastern Mediterranean,
25:28able to refuel and resupply in safety
25:31under the protection
25:32of the island's fortifications.
25:36It wasn't until World War II
25:38that these defenses would be put to use.
25:42By 1943,
25:44the region was largely occupied
25:46by the Axis powers of Nazi Germany
25:49and fascist Italy.
25:51But when the Allied invasion
25:53of mainland Italy began in September,
25:55Mussolini's regime crumbled
25:57and his armies surrendered.
26:00The race was now on
26:02for control of Leros.
26:06The Germans rushed to seize
26:08all the areas held by the Italians,
26:10who are now seen as traitors.
26:12This made British Prime Minister
26:15Winston Churchill incredibly nervous.
26:17He, like Mussolini,
26:19saw these islands
26:20as strategically crucial.
26:23And he says,
26:24we have got to take these islands.
26:28But his American allies
26:30would have none of it.
26:32The American decision makers,
26:34Dwight Eisenhower in particular,
26:36want nothing whatsoever to do
26:39with trying to grab
26:40Italian-held Greek islands
26:43off the coast of Turkey.
26:46From an American point of view,
26:48if we're going to attack
26:50anything in the Mediterranean,
26:52it's Italy.
26:53But Churchill was hellbent
26:55on seeing his plans through,
26:57even if it meant
26:58the British going alone.
27:01Churchill rushed
27:023,000 British troops
27:04to the island
27:04to reinforce the 8,000-man
27:07Italian garrison,
27:08now stranded on Leros.
27:10They won the race
27:12against the Nazis,
27:13but a reckoning was coming.
27:21On September 26th,
27:23the German air attack began.
27:26The Luftwaffe began
27:28a relentless campaign
27:29that lasted over 50 days.
27:32Nicholas de Loglou
27:34was just nine years old
27:35when the bombardments began.
27:39Every time we heard
27:41those bombs,
27:42we would cry.
27:44We'd spend the whole day
27:45in the shelters.
27:47In our shelter,
27:48there were 60 people.
27:50We were scared.
27:51We were children,
27:52and we were crying.
27:55But the Germans
27:56didn't just target
27:57military positions.
27:59They attacked
28:00the island's towns
28:02and villages.
28:05We would return
28:06to our homes
28:07only to find
28:08nothing left.
28:09Our homes
28:11were also destroyed
28:12by the Germans.
28:13It was psychologically
28:15unbearable.
28:18After seven weeks
28:20of relentless attack,
28:21in the early hours
28:22of November 12th,
28:23a German invasion force
28:26approached Leros.
28:28Nearly 3,000 elite troops
28:31launched an assault
28:32across the island,
28:34hoping to claim
28:35the vital port
28:36for Nazi Germany.
28:39Some units
28:40landed right beneath
28:42this arsenal of weapons.
28:46These were the mounting bolts
28:49for the guns.
28:51The guns placed here
28:52were anti-ship guns.
28:54Everyone knows
28:56that a naval ship
28:58can never win
28:59in a gunfight
29:00against a shore battery.
29:03But the cannon
29:05on top of this steep peak
29:07had a fatal flaw.
29:09The gun is built
29:10to fire at something far.
29:13If you bring something up close,
29:16you can't depress
29:17the barrel far enough
29:19to shoot at it.
29:21This gun is fearsome
29:24at range.
29:24It is useless
29:26up close.
29:27German landing craft
29:29managed to sneak in
29:30under the blind spot
29:32of the guns.
29:33They started climbing
29:34up the hill.
29:36The Allied artillery troops
29:38stationed in this battery
29:40were about to be confronted
29:41with hand-to-hand combat
29:43against elite Nazi infantry.
29:46And little did they know,
29:48paratroopers were preparing
29:50to drop right behind them.
29:59November 12th, 1943.
30:02Britain and their new ally,
30:04Italy,
30:05are defending the island
30:06of Leros
30:07as elite Nazi shock troops
30:10land under the blind spot
30:12of a coastal battery.
30:14So, the German troopers
30:16that landed there
30:17were specially trained
30:19to climb the rocks.
30:20The fighting was close quarters,
30:22hand-to-hand fight,
30:24with handguns.
30:25It was actually like being
30:27on a street fight.
30:28It was that close.
30:29Once they secured positions
30:31on the rocky slopes,
30:32it was impossible
30:33to dislodge the German soldiers.
30:36Soon, the Allied troops
30:38were hemmed in
30:39on all sides.
30:40There were also
30:42some paratroopers
30:43that fell on the other side
30:44of the hill,
30:45and there were heavy losses
30:47on both sides.
30:48It took the Germans
30:49two days
30:49to conquer
30:51this gunpoint.
30:54With total control
30:56of the skies,
30:57the Nazis dropped
30:58waves of paratroopers
31:00onto the narrow neck
31:01at the center
31:02of the island,
31:03splitting the Allied forces
31:05in two.
31:06After four days
31:07of bitter fighting,
31:09the Germans
31:09had the Allied HQ
31:10surrounded.
31:11At that point,
31:12the British commander
31:13surrendered.
31:13He was keen
31:14to avoid a massacre.
31:16Out of the 3,000 British troops
31:18on the island,
31:20almost 600 were killed,
31:21and the rest
31:22were either injured
31:23or taken as prisoners
31:25of war.
31:25The Italians
31:27lost nearly 300 men,
31:30and in total,
31:318,500 Allied troops
31:33were taken captive.
31:35This is said to be
31:37one of Germany's
31:38last victories
31:39in World War II.
31:41It's such a disaster
31:43for the British
31:44that it gets called
31:46Churchill's folly.
31:48Despite its obvious flaws
31:50from the very start,
31:52Winston Churchill
31:53remained defiant.
31:55Privately,
31:56he blamed the Americans.
31:58With their help,
31:59it might have been avoided.
32:01Germany occupied Leros
32:02until the end
32:03of the war.
32:04After their defeat,
32:06it returned
32:06to British control.
32:08The island finally
32:10became part of Greece
32:11in 1948.
32:14Since then,
32:15the gun battery ruins
32:17have sat abandoned,
32:19slowly crumbling
32:20down the mountainside.
32:26In recent years,
32:28the Greek cultural ministry
32:29declared Leros'
32:30World War II remains
32:31as an historic monument.
32:34Leros stands
32:36as a living museum
32:38of one of the most epic
32:39and tragic battles
32:40of World War II.
32:4780 miles south
32:48of Peru's capital city,
32:50Lima,
32:51is a palatial compound
32:53designed by an owner
32:54living a double life.
33:00We can see farmlands
33:02stretching out
33:03into the distance,
33:04but surrounded
33:05by modern structures
33:07is a building
33:08that looks really
33:09out of place.
33:11This building
33:12has a real mishmash
33:14of features
33:14with its ornate arches
33:16and tiling.
33:17There are also
33:18Gothic spires,
33:19castle-like walls
33:21and these towers.
33:24The gardens
33:26indicate wealth
33:27and opulence,
33:29which is mirrored inside.
33:31Decorative wallpaper,
33:33wood carvings
33:34and stained glass windows.
33:36Whoever built this
33:37had some serious cash
33:39to play with.
33:40This was more
33:41than just a house.
33:43It was the gateway
33:44to Peru's elite.
33:48On a lower level,
33:50we find a trap door
33:51that leads
33:52to a dark dungeon-like space.
33:55It's a completely
33:56lightless network
33:57of narrow tunnels.
33:59They could have been
34:01for access or storage,
34:03but you can't help
34:04wondering if they had
34:06a more sinister purpose.
34:09Behind these bright
34:11and colorful walls
34:12lie terrible secrets
34:14that most Peruvians
34:15remain unaware of.
34:22In the early 1800s,
34:25a vast estate
34:27growing sugarcane
34:28and cotton
34:29was acquired
34:30by an iconic figure
34:31in Peru's history,
34:34Ippolito Unanue.
34:36He was an academic
34:38and politician
34:39that supported
34:40Peru's fight
34:41for independence.
34:42After liberation
34:43from Spain
34:44was achieved
34:45in 1824,
34:47Unanue served
34:48as president
34:49of the Congress
34:50and the Minister
34:50of Finance
34:51in the New Republic
34:52of Peru.
34:54He died in 1833
34:56and the estate
34:57passed to his son,
34:59Jose Unanue
35:00de la Cuba.
35:01Jose Unanue
35:03was determined
35:03to build himself
35:05the most luxurious
35:06home on the Peruvian coast,
35:09as well as have it serve
35:10as a tribute
35:11to his father.
35:12construction began
35:13on this project
35:14in 1843.
35:17Local historian
35:19David Pino
35:20has spent years
35:21investigating this place
35:23and has unearthed
35:25some surprises
35:26along the way.
35:29In the mid-19th century,
35:32the house looked vastly
35:33different from its current state.
35:35Nevertheless,
35:36traces of its former grandeur
35:38can still be seen.
35:39The walls were adorned
35:40with tapestries,
35:42lamps illuminated the space,
35:43and the furniture
35:44was imported from Europe.
35:48legend has it
35:50that Unanue
35:52bought a Bavarian castle,
35:55stripped it
35:55of its doors,
35:56windows,
35:57and furniture,
35:58and transported them
35:59all the way here
36:00to decorate
36:01his own palace.
36:03He was heavily influenced
36:05by North African
36:06Moorish architecture,
36:08and you can definitely
36:09see those influences.
36:11Its construction
36:13was a passion project
36:14and continued
36:15to evolve
36:16for decades.
36:17The many visitors
36:19who enjoyed
36:20these spaces
36:20knew it
36:21as Hacienda Unanue.
36:24The mansion
36:26hosted an array
36:27of people
36:29from the Peruvian elite
36:30and regularly hosted
36:32lavish banquets.
36:35But just feet away
36:37from these
36:38extravagant parties
36:39lay the dark secret
36:41behind Unanue's wealth.
36:50In the Canete Valley,
36:52near Lima,
36:53José Unanue
36:54constructed
36:55an elaborate palace.
36:57Throughout the mid-1800s,
37:00he welcomed
37:01Peruvian aristocracy,
37:03hosting parties
37:04and banquets.
37:08But a trap door
37:10leads to a different world
37:12that underpinned
37:13his wealth.
37:15It's known
37:16that these spaces
37:17were used
37:17to confine
37:18dozens of
37:19enslaved individuals
37:20who were subjected
37:21to torture,
37:23mutilations
37:23and great suffering
37:25in the narrow corridors.
37:29The estate
37:31was run
37:31on a system
37:32of slavery.
37:34Unanue
37:35didn't just
37:36own
37:36enslaved people.
37:37His mansion
37:38also served
37:39as a marketplace.
37:42The auctioneers
37:43were located
37:44on this terrace
37:45where they could
37:45see enslaved people
37:47being brought in
37:47and offered
37:48like livestock.
37:49The price
37:50of a slave
37:51at that time
37:51was 250 pesos,
37:53half the cost
37:55of a packed donkey.
37:56The slave trade
37:58in Peru
37:58had technically
37:59been abolished
38:00in 1821
38:01but illicit imports
38:02of enslaved Africans
38:04into Peru
38:05continued
38:05albeit in secret.
38:07It's believed
38:09the tunnels
38:10were used
38:10both to hold
38:11and punish
38:12the 400 enslaved people
38:14that Unanue
38:15is thought
38:15to have owned.
38:17This continued
38:18on the estate
38:19until 1854
38:21when slavery
38:22was abolished
38:22by President
38:23Ramon Castilla
38:24who became
38:25known as
38:26the liberator.
38:28Landowners
38:29found a way
38:30to replace
38:31the labor shortage
38:32by bringing in
38:33Chinese workers.
38:36In the 20 years
38:38after emancipation
38:39some 100,000
38:41Chinese immigrants
38:42came to Peru.
38:43They were promised
38:45a better life
38:46or coerced
38:47into leaving
38:48China by recruiters
38:49and brought here
38:50to work
38:51as indentured servants.
38:54This system
38:55of forced labor
38:56was brutal
38:57and it led
38:58to about half
38:59of these Chinese workers
39:00dying before
39:01the age of 40
39:02for things like
39:04exhaustion,
39:05ill treatment
39:06but even suicide.
39:08But soon
39:10these workers
39:11would be presented
39:12with an opportunity
39:13to seize freedom
39:15and enact
39:16a measure
39:16of revenge.
39:18In 1879
39:20war broke out
39:21with Chile.
39:23The following year
39:24an invasion force
39:25landed 40 miles
39:27south of Unanwe.
39:29The Chilean army
39:31rampaged
39:32through the area
39:33moving north
39:34towards the capital
39:35passing through
39:36Cañete Valley.
39:39Many of these
39:40Chinese laborers
39:41joined the Chileans
39:42in ransacking
39:43these Peruvian estates
39:45but their collaboration
39:46led to terrible
39:48reprisals
39:49from the local
39:49Peruvian peasants.
39:51In 1881
39:53tensions boiled over
39:55and a riot
39:55broke out.
39:56In the ensuing
39:58violence
39:58and chaos
39:591,000 Chinese workers
40:02were massacred
40:03including
40:03on the Unanwe
40:05estate.
40:07Peace
40:08only returned
40:09to the region
40:10in 1884
40:11when the Chilean
40:13army withdrew.
40:14The following year
40:16Jose Unanwe
40:17died childless
40:19and the estate
40:19passed through
40:20his nephew's
40:21family
40:21for generations.
40:23But the 1960s
40:26would see
40:26seismic changes
40:28that would
40:28transform Peru.
40:30In 1968
40:32Army General
40:33Juan Velasco
40:34Alvarado
40:35led a coup
40:36to seize control
40:37of the government
40:38and forcibly
40:39implemented
40:40agrarian reform
40:41across Peru.
40:43The estates
40:45were transformed
40:46into farming
40:46cooperatives
40:47partly owned
40:48by the peasants
40:49who worked them.
40:51Jose Unanwe's
40:53descendants
40:53were forced
40:54to leave
40:55and the surrounding
40:56estate
40:56divided up
40:57among the poor.
40:59The palace
41:00itself
41:00was left abandoned
41:02and its fittings
41:04and furniture
41:05looted.
41:10In 1972
41:11Unanwe Palace
41:13was declared
41:13a National Historic
41:15Monument.
41:16Despite it being
41:17open to the public
41:19this abandoned
41:20building
41:21has suffered
41:22from lack
41:23of investment
41:23and has fallen
41:24into ruin.
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